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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Free Tatted Scarf Pattern

I've been toying with the idea of offering up tatting patterns here for quite a while. I was always a little afraid that I would alienate my non tatting friends and since my skills at pattern writing are negligible, I assumed my experienced tatting friends would be completely uninterested as well. As I was finishing up a new scarf yesterday, I decided that it was the piece to cut my pattern offering teeth on. It's a very simple pattern, so all those just starting out or returning to tatting after a time will have something interesting to try out. The beauty of this piece is that even though it is simple, the finished project looks like much more complicated design.

First off a little yarn choosing information. I like to use hand dyed super wash merino sock yarn. If you search for that on etsy, you will find every possible color combination imaginable. Other comparable choices include, sport weight or baby yarn. You can certainly choose thinner or thicker yarns, but that will change the dimensions of the scarf. I'd also like to point out that I am a needle tatter and though I'm certain that shuttle tatting with yarn is possible, I have no expertise in that field as what kind of shuttle to use. For your needle, you want to pick the smallest needle that you can easily thread your yarn choice through.

Now the pattern, the scarf consists of two mirrored rows of a pattern I call 'simple vine'. While I came up with this pattern myself some time ago, it occurs to me that as simple as it is, it existed long before I 'designed' it, I just haven't run across it yet. I'm going to write this longhand just in case my shorthand version only makes sense to me.

The second row mirrors the first and joins at matching picots. The pictures should give you a good idea of where the joins are.

That's all there is to this one, I hope that all made sense. Just a few more bits of, well, let's call it wisdom. It you're not ready for yarn tatting yet, you can use this same pattern with size 10 thread to make yourself a bracelet or choker. Simply change the length to whatever you need. The reverse holds true as well. If you've got a nice symmetrical bookmark pattern the length can be altered to make a bracelet or choker and if you change to yarn it will probably make a great scarf. The whole reason I've been able to come up with interesting pieces is that I look beyond what a pattern is written for to what it could be and anyone can do that.

Please feel free to use this pattern for your own use and share the results with me. If you wish to make pieces to sell, please contact me first.

I hope this wasn't too boring to all those non-tatters out there. Maybe I have even inspired a few of you to take up tatting too.

The scarf will be on sale in my etsy store just as soon I finish here. The yarn used for this scarf was from Onecrazystitch.etsy.com

You must be a mind reader!!! A co-worker asked me just the other day if I can make a scarf - I told her no b/c I don't knit or crochet - only tat. And along came your post!!! Can you tell me know much of the sock yarn you used? I have no idea how much to buy! THANK YOU!!

Amazing pattern, thanks so much for sharing! I'm new to tatting, but ready to take on an ambitious project like this for Mother's Day:) Thanks so much also for your videos and Instructibles. As my unknowing but oh so wonderfully helpful instructor, thank you! :)

I think this is lovely and I am not that good yet at tatting - I was trying to make it a bracelet - my question is are the two sides made independently of each other and then joined as you go or after they are both finished or do you continue on after the first row with the same threads joining as you go - I was able to join the first section of each row using separate rows but am stumped after the second chain - also can't make out what you did on the ends - hoping this made some sense to you Thanks for any advice :)

Pen, Yes you join as you work the second section. I turned the piece by adding a chain at the end and then working the second side up from there, but it can just as easily be cut and tied after the first side and the second worked separately. There is no need to do anything at the ends. I hope that makes sense.

I just HAD to post a comment that I made this scarf as Christmas presents and they were a hit! The first one I did, I did not alternate where I joined them, it came out pretty but I thought it was not "strong". THen I realized that I needed to flip the following section to connect to the two rings. I was soo pleased with them!Your directions were super and definitely will share your idea.BrenMOM

I'll be trying this one on shuttles soon! For the shuttle tatters out there: you'll need two shuttles if you're going to tat it that way. (I haven't learned needle tatting. Maybe someday!) There are some pretty large shuttles out there that can hold a surprising amount of sock-weight yarn. Tatsy brand makes big shuttles, and I picked up shuttles at Hobby Lobby that are about three or four inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick. If there's a will, there's a way! :)

Finally! Instructions for needle tatting! Thank you so much! I have had some difficulty in translating directions from shuttle tatting patterns, being a newbie to tatting, so these are very much appreciated!

@Jannel James There's really no way to start with enough yarn to do the whole scarf without it turning into a tangles mess. Just thread as much as you are comfortable with using and know that you will have to add more yarn as it's needed. As far as how much total is needed, I didn't keep track of yardage, but it was much less than a skein of sock yarn.